The Last Man on Earth (2015-) TV series

Given time, all things are possibly in TV-land, including a romantic comedy of post-apocalyptic proportions. Starring Will Forte as Phil Miller, who believes himself to be the last human on the planet after a virus epidemic, The Last Man on Earth is a promising and fresh comedy that debuted on the Fox Network on March 1, 2015.

Carriers (2009) movie

In the 2009 movie Carriers, a virus outbreak in the United States has decimated just about everyone, at least in what appears to be the western half of the continent. A road movie starring Christopher (Starship Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk) Pine as an extremely unlikeable protagonist, he and his younger brother, along with their respective girlfriends, are on their way to the ocean (California?) to recapture their childhood and teenage years when their family vacationed there. At the end of the journey only two of the four are left alive at their destination. This is a grim and unrelenting look at an apocalyptic future.

Daybreakers (2010) movie

The 2010 movie Daybreakers movie starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas and Sam Neill asks the burning question: what if almost the whole human population had turned into vampires? We find out in all the bloody details as we look at the world in 2019 through Hawke's vampire character who works for a company that both farms humans for their blood supply and which is also working on a blood substitute because there is simply not enough human blood around for all the vampires to survive. Naturally, there is a cure, but it is a very painful one for any vampire to endure and for many vampires, the virus that gave them immortality is no longer seen as a disease but a blessing if only those last humans would cooperate.

The Year of the Flood (2009) novel

The Year of the Flood in Margaret Atwood's 2009 sequel to her Oryx and Crake (2003) novel refers to a manmade pandemic that destroys most of our species.

Oryx and Crake (2003) novel

Margaret Atwood's 2003 novel Oryx and Crake was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year. It's an end-of-the-world tale caused by a manmade pandemic and she continued the story from a different perspective in The Year of the Flood (2009).

The Passage (2010) novel

The Passage (2010), a lengthy, rambling novel by Justin Cronin, combines some familiar apocalyptic plot elements into an end of the world odyssey. We have a military-induced virus that turns people into vampire-like creatures, beginning with test subjects who are soldiers in an underground installation (shades of Resident Evil), we have errant nuclear bombs going off and we have a future earth, largely depopulated, but with enough survivors to carry on.

The Blood Artists (1998) novel

Chuck Hogan's 1998 novel The Blood Artists is about a virus that takes on human form and has the capability of destroying humanity. In 2009 co-authored the first volume of The Strain Trilogy with Mexican motion picture director Guillermo del Toro, the subject matter of which is very similar to his earlier novel.

The Strain (2009) novel, Book 1 of the Strain Trilogy

Mexican superstar motion picture director Guillermo del Toro, who lives in Los Angeles, California, USA, and novelist Chuck Hogan, who published a similar work in 1998, The Blood Artists, have teamed up to kill off the world with a vampirism virus in their Strain Trilogy:

• Book 1, The Strain (2009)



• Book 2, The Fall (2010)



• Book 3, The Night Eternal (2011)

In Book 1 that favorite target of doomsday scenarios, New York City, is ground zero for this virus, the likes of which have been seen before.

I Am Legend (1954) novel

Richard Matheson's 1954 horror novel I Am Legend so scared me just from its description that I never read it. It was adapted into three film versions: The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price, The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston, which I have seen and I Am Legend (2007) starring Will Smith, which I have also seen.

Fallen Earth computer game

With its tag line of Welcome to the Apocalypse, the Fallen Earth online, multiplayer computer game promises hours of doom-ridden gameplay in the 21st century after a combination of a deadly virus and nuclear weapons nearly destroy all of humanity.

Doomsday (2008) movie

The 2008 movie Doomsday is about a virus that's hit the United Kingdom and threatens the rest of humanity with extinction. Except for setting this in the future and giving it a science fiction spin, does this not sound a lot like 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), the zombie-laden horror films also set in the same location. Well, ok, they aren't really zombies in the latter two films, nor are there any in Doomsday, just very angry, sick people who have to be killed before they tear innocent, unaffected people apart.

The main plot of the movie, set in the year 2035, is about a woman soldier played by Rhona Mitra who leads a team back into Glasgow, the original vector for the spread of the virus, to try and find a cure for the virus that the politicians believe exists based on the satellite evidence of survivors first seen in 2032.